Enough is enough: Boris Johnson leads media charge on Syria strikes

Watch: The foreign secretary and the Labour leader were both on the Andrew Marr Show.

Government ministers were out in force over weekend to explain to government’s rationale for airstrikes in Syria, with Boris Johnson leading the charge on the Andrew Marr Show.

To foreign secretary was asked: what was the mission and have we really accomplished it?

He responded: “There’s one overwhelming reason why this was the right thing to do, and that is to deter the use of chemical weapons, not just by the Assad regime but around the world. And I think one of the most distressing things about the events of the last few years has been the contemptuous growth in the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian theatre of conflict…

“Finally the world has said ‘Enough is enough’, and I think it’s important that we understand the limits of what we are trying to do…

“This is not going to turn the tide of the conflict in Syria. One can hope it encourages the Russians to get Assad to the negotiating table in Geneva, to get a political process properly going, but that is, as it were, an extra. The primary purpose is to say no to the use of barbaric chemical weapons.”

On the same show, Jeremy Corbyn expressed his unease over the strikes and criticised the prime minister for not recalling Parliament to vote on the issue.

And he refused to accept the British intelligence assessment that Bashar al-Assad was definitely to blame.